Other gods
by RisSie38
Summary: The Egyptian and Greek gods hatch a plan to understand each other better and uphold Ma'at. And of course, the demigods and magicians are the ones who do the dirty work. How they plan to do this? They read books of course!
1. Prologue

**A/N: Heeeey~ So hi! This is my first fic here. It would be a reading the books story by the way. Please review! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kane Chronicles or Percy Jackson. Anything you recognize is from the awesome Rick Riordan.**

* * *

It was very quiet in the throne room of the gods. They had just agreed on something completely crazy.

"Are you sure that we could trust heroes with this?" Hera asked Athena.

"I'm certain of it. It is the wisest choice. It would only result in chaos if we gods are the ones who would do this. I'm sure that the chosen heroes would do well."

"But which heroes should we send?" asked Artemis.

"My son, Perseus, should be there of course," Poseidon spoke up from his throne.

A man wearing a pin-striped suit said in a loud voice, "Then we shall send Thalia as well."

Artemis agreed with the king of the gods.

"My own daughter Annabeth is another wise choice. And how about Nico di Angelo?"

The god of the Underworld murmured his agreement.

"I think that is enough," Zeus said loudly. "We should send our proposal soon."

* * *

Somewhere in the Duat, the Egyptian gods had just finished making a big decision.

"So we shall be sending the Kanes and Zia Rashid then?" Isis asked. "And are we sure we should do this?"

"Yes. It's for upholding Ma'at after all."

**A/N: It's really short. I know. But it's just the proglogue... So bye~ Please review. I'm working on the first chapter.**


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: Okaaaaay. I sadly didn't get any reviews on the prologue. I planned on uploading this chapter after I get a review but that didn't happen so I just uploaded this. They would start reading on the next chapter._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Kane Chronicles. I am not the amazing Rick Riordan._

* * *

In a place unknown, there was a comfortable little room. An assortment of sofas and beanbags were arranged in a large circle around a small coffee table. On the table were bottles of water and a few other drinks. On one side of the room was a large fireplace. On top of it was a huge painting showcasing the Greek gods. Opposite it hung another painting which showed different depictions of the Egyptian gods.

All of a sudden, there was a bright flash in the room. As the light died down, four teenagers stood on one side of the room looking shocked. One of them had jet black hair sea green eyes. Standing hand in hand with him was a girl with curly blond hair and intense gray eyes. To her side was a girl with spiky short black hair, electric blue eyes, and clothes that looked like one's of a punk or goth. Her clothing didn't really match the silver circlet on her head. Near them stood a boy who looked a bit younger than the rest of them. He had pale skin, messy black hair, and sunken dark eyes. He wore all black and had a skull ring on one of his fingers.

Standing opposite them were three teenagers wearing loose linen clothing. One guy had curly dark hair and dark eyes. There was a girl with caramel hair and blue eyes with a bright red streak on her hair and combat boots which didn't match her loose linen clothes. A girl stood by them wearing a beige linen dress and sandals. She had Arab features. Her hair was black and she had amber eyes and caramel-colored skin.

In an instant, all of them were ready to attack. The green-eyed boy took out a pen which was replaced by a shimmering bronze sword. The blonde girl next to him took out a bronze knife. The girl with the spiky hair with them procured a bow with an arrow ready out of nowhere. The boy dressed in black unsheathed a black sword made of iron from his side.

The three opposite them got ready as well. The Arab girl held a staff in her hand. The boy held some kind of a curved sword. The girl in combat boots held something that looked like a boomerang. Her other hand was pointed towards the people opposite them in an odd gesture.

A soft glowing light around a piece of paper on the coffee table caught everyone's attention. The blonde girl with a knife slowly went to the table and picked up the letter. She opened her mouth and started to read loudly.

_Dear Demigods and Magicians,_

_As we have informed you, we have gathered you here on a diplomatic mission in order to have more understanding about the world unknown to mortals and uphold peace and order (Ma'at) between our worlds._

_You shall read the books we have given you and not harm each other in any way._

_Signed,_

_The gods_

_(Egyptian and Greek)_

Everyone started to lower their weapons.

"How about we introduce ourselves first?" asked the girl who read the letter. "My name is Annabeth Chase. I'm a demigod daughter of Athena and the Architect of Olympus."

"Daughter?" mumbled the girl with the boomerang. "So the gods are their parents? They don't have to host them huh?"

"I'm Percy. Percy Jackson," said the boy with the bronze sword. "My dad's Poseidon and I'm the savior of Olympus."

"I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus," said the girl with the bow. "I'm one of the Hunters. Scratch that. Actually, I'm the lieutenant of Artemis."

The magicians didn't know what the Hunters were but just nodded all the same.

"I'm Nico di Angelo," the last demigod said. "I'm a son of Hades."

Then the magicians started to introduce themselves.

"I'm Sadie Kane," said the girl in combat boots. "I'm the Scribe of Brooklyn House and I follow the path of Isis."

"What's the Brooklyn House?" asked Annabeth. "And what do you mean by path?"

"Er –"

The boy next to her saved her from having to explain by introducing himself.

"I'm Carter Kane. Sadie is my sister. I'm the Pharaoh of the House of Life as well as the leader of the Twenty-First Nome. I follow the path of Horus."

Annabeth was about to ask questions but was interrupted by the last person introducing themselves.

The Kanes were surprised but glad that the demigods didn't question the fact that they were siblings.

"My name is Zia Rashid," the last magician stated but didn't elaborate further.

Annabeth to question them but doubted she would get any answers. She took out two boxes from under the table. The first and bigger box was labeled _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_ and the other one was labeled _Kane Chronicles_.

She showed the boxes to the rest.

"How about let's start with this box?" she gestured to the larger box mostly because it was surely to be about her boyfriend.

The others quietly muttered their agreement while taking their seats.

Annabeth took out the first book which said "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief".

She opened the book on the first chapter and cleared her throat, "**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**"

* * *

_A/N: There you go! Soooo... comments? Do you like it? Hate it? Any mistakes you would want to point out? Please please review~_


	3. He Vaporized His Teacher

_A/N: Hellooo~ How are you people doing? I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those five people who reviewed so far. I really appreciate it. I was supposed to upload this yesterday but I wasn't able to due to excitement. I'm going to see one of my friends who I thought I would never see again. (You probably don't care but yeah xD) But here it is! I'm sorry if they might seem OOC or something. Don't forget to review~_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Kane Chronicles. I offer a huge salute to the wonderful Rick Riordan._

* * *

She opened the book on the first chapter and cleared her throat, "**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**"

"How could you accidentally vaporize your teacher?" asked Sadie. "Not that I'm complaining. I hate algebra."

"I'm sure we'd find out if you don't interrupt Sadie," her brother replied.

Sadie grumbled but gestured at Annabeth to continue reading.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"That's right," the demigods all agreed.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"I don't think that would work seaweed brain."

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"That's true," the half-bloods muttered in agreement once again.

The magicians stared wondering how bad it could really be.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before ****_they _****sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't," Nico pointed out.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a ****_few _****months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes," the demigods minus Percy all agreed.

"Thanks guys," he mock pouted.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See? Even you agree with us Kelp Head."

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mentalcase kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds awesome," both Annabeth and Carter said.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Annabeth frowned at Percy who didn't comment.

** Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"He sounds like a cool teacher," Sadie said casually.

Carter and Zia stared at her. _Sadie _thinking a _teacher _was cool?

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

The demigods snorted.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

And again, the demigods snorted.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and ketchup sandwich.**

"Poor Grover," Thalia said lightly.

"That's disgusting," said Sadie making a face. "Who eats peanut butter with ketchup?"

"Apparently Nancy Bobofit."

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Grover and his enchiladas," Percy said as he, Annabeth, and Thalia shook their heads fondly.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Knowing Percy, something a lot more than mildly entertaining would happen," Nico said wisely.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Please do," several muttered.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"With ketchup?"

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

"What happened?" Sadie asked curiously.

"I vaporized my pre-algebra professor."

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Some of those longer," Annabeth told Percy.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a ****_stele, _****for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,**

"You were actually interested?" Annabeth asked in shock. The other half-bloods stared in shock as well but Percy merely shrugged.

**but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Annabeth looked at Percy remembering who Mrs. Dodds was.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"What's with the honey?" asked Carter.

Nico however was thinking about something else. _Honey… could it be?_

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Seriously Grover," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "He's not supposed to know that yet."

"Wait, so she isn't human?" Sadie asked.

Annabeth answered by continuing to read.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you ****_shut up_****?"**

"Uh oh"

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

Percy and Nico shuddered at the thought of their parents getting eaten.

"That's disgusting!"

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he ****_did _****this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"God?" the rest of the demigods asked Percy.

"Give me a break! I didn't know much then."

"You still don't know much now."

"Wait, so Kronos wasn't a god?" Sadie muttered to Zia and Carter.

"He was a Titan Sadie," Zia replied but she wasn't paying attention anymore.

Carter merely rolled his eyes and gave her his _Gods, you're so stupid_ look.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

The girls made disgusted faces.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Only you Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said shaking her head, "could sum up one of the biggest wars ever in one simple."

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"Well for us it actually is important to know in real life," Thalia pointed out.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted," most of them muttered.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Oh no, I think like a goat!" Nico exclaimed dramatically falling of his chair.

The magicians looked at him curiously and he just said "You'll get it later," gesturing to the book having recovered.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Too true," the demigods agreed.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note,**

"How's that a happy note?"

**it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

And again, the demigods muttered in agreement.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"That's all you say?" Thalia asked with a raised eyebrow only to be answered by a shrug.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever ****_lived, _****and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be ****_as good; _****he expected me to be ****_better. _****And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

The demigods grumbled. _Stupid dyslexia_

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was," Annabeth said quietly.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas.**

"What have they been fighting about now?" Thalia asked.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from ****_that _****school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Isn't that the truth?" the half-bloods snorted. Percy just mock pouted and let his girlfriend continue reading.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

Everyone started cracking up at that.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"You seem really close to your mother," Sadie commented in an off-hand voice.

Percy nodded with a small smile on his face as Carter gave her a sad smile which she returned.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Everyone made a face of either disgust or anger… or both.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Cue a bit of snickering here.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Wave?" asked Carter. "Is it because of being a son of Poseidon?"

"I guess so," Percy answered. He never really gave much thought about it.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"I can't believe Grover and more importantly Chiron didn't get it yet," muttered Annabeth.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

"Enough with the honey!"

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." That wasn't the right thing to say.**

Sadie, Thalia and Nico shook their heads at him.

"You shouldn't guess what your punishment is. It gets worse."

"I know that now."

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. ****_I _****pushed her." I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"That's nice of him."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You— ****_will_****—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. " ****_Now_****." Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"Ugh! Stop it with the honey!" Sadie exclaimed. She didn't care that she was making such a fuss on something really small especially since she could be some sort of monster. It seriously was annoying.

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"My I'll-kill-you-later stare is better than yours Perce!" Nico said proudly.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

And they proceeded to have a staring contest. Both of their looks were really scary, especially Nico's.

Everyone shuddered at the dark looks they were giving each other and Annabeth decided to just get on with the book.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

"How'd she get there so fast?" Carter asked.

**How'd she get there so fast?**

And they all laughed.

"I pity you Carter," Annabeth said. "You seemed smart but now you think like Seaweed Brain over here."

"Yeah, wait – HEY!" said Percy as the others started another round of laughter.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I wish," muttered Percy.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"He really should have noticed it sooner.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"If only," said Percy wistfully. Those who didn't know what happened wondered what exactly could have happened.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"Please! Stop the honey!"

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?"

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

Thalia glared. "Dad," she muttered.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"You never know what anyone is ever talking about," Thalia pointed out.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on ****_Tom Sawyer _****from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"What do you have against books?" Annabeth huffed.

"Nothing," Percy said innocently. "It's just the dyslexia."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes but accepted the answer not noticing Percy's sigh of relief.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A fury?! That's your first monster?" Thalia asked eyes wide.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

"What can a pen do?" asked Carter.

The demigods tried to hide their smiles.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

The magicians' eyes widened as Percy grinned, took out the pen, uncapped it, and capped it again.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Can't she stop calling you honey?!"

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How could swinging a sword be natural?" Carter asked.

The demigods shrug. "It's natural for us."

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. ****_Hisss!_**

The magicians stared at Carter in awe.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms? Seriously Seaweed Brain?"

Sadie, however, was thinking of something different.

"No Sadie. You're not contaminating our lunch with magic mushrooms."

"You're no fun Carter," Sadie pouted as everyone else chuckled, the half-bloods wondering if that was actually possible.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Sadly, no."

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" most asked.

** I said, "Who?"**

**"Our ****_teacher. _****Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

"The mist," Annabeth said.

"What's the mist?" asked Carter. "And yes Sadie, there are things I don't know."

"You'll find out," Annabeth replied.

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

The half-bloods groaned.

"Someone really needs to teach Grover how to lie," Nico said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

Thalia rolled her eyes and muttered a single word, "Dad."

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Well at least _he_ seems to know how to lie," Sadie told Nico.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well that must have been weird," Sadie said. Carter shot her a look saying _You think?_

"And that's the end of the chapter. Who wants to ready next?"

"I will," said Thalia. She took the book and read.

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death,"**

_And there you have it. The first chapter of them actually reading. If you have any comments please feel free to review. Sorry if there are any mistakes. If there are, feel free to point it out. (Once again, I'm trying to tell you to review xD) Hope you all liked it~_


	4. Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death

_Okay so... I'M SO SORRY! *sobs* For those who actually cares, I just want to give a quick and maybe a bit crappy explanation. My birthday was on the last week of August and we went out of town. There was internet in the hotel but the story was in my laptop. I was barely home for the first week of September because I kept going out with my friends. It was supposedly our last week of summer vacation._ _School was delayed though. But I had a huge case of writer's block last week. (Until now) School is starting tomorrow. I think. (It's not sure yet.) But just in case it starts tomorrow, I rushed this chapter today because I'm not sure how often I'd be able to update when school starts. _

_Okaaaaay. Here you go. It's not really good because I just rushed this._

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Kane Chronicles. I offer a huge salute to the wonderful Rick Riordan._

* * *

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"**

The demigods aside from Percy paled after a moment of confusion. _The fates._

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This**

**twentyfour/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"The mist."

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"That must be hard," said Carter.

"You should get used to it," said Nico. "You really _are _psycho."

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Grover," everyone sighed including the magicians.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. **

"Knew it," someone muttered.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"He really needs to learn how to lie," said Thalia conversationally.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum. I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Well that's not bad," said Annabeth.

Everyone stared at her but it was Percy who answered.

"I have pretty bad dreams. Even for a half-blood."

The magicians wondered how bad his dreams could be and if they could be as bad as ba trips.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

Thalia narrowed her eyes muttering "Father"

_What were Zeus and Poseidon fighting about?_

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Annabeth frowned at Percy.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Everyone started laughing at that.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

Several smiled sadly at him.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. **

Percy started to glare at nothing.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The **_**view **_**of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. **

"Grover is so going to hear about this," Thalia snickered.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me. I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. **

"Well at least you studied," Annabeth sighed.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Well, at least there's that."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek**_

_**Mythology **_**across my dorm room. **

Annabeth frowned at him.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, **

"I know now," grinned Percy.

"Of course you would," Annabeth answered. "Since you've met them both."

The magicians wondered what they were talking about.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you,**__**Percy Jackson.**_

"So no pressure," said Sadie.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said **_**"... **_**worried about Percy, sir." I froze.**

"You shouldn't eavesdrop Percy," frowned Annabeth.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Good point,"

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

All the demigods except Percy snorted.

"Percy? Mature?"

"He has good points, but really… mature?"

"I doubt that would ever happen."

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— **_**"**_

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"It would if it weren't for Grover though," said Carter.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia and Annabeth groaned.

"How many times do we have to tell him he didn't fail?"

"It was my decision anyways. Grover did a great job!"

The magicians stared at the two with interest wondering what happened.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," **

"He's right."

**Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—" The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud. Mr. Brunner went silent.**

Everyone groaned again.

"I couldn't help it. I didn't understand a thing they were talking about and then they were saying stuff about keeping me alive."

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good. Don't leave evidence behind,"

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"He shouldn't have done that," Annabeth shook her head.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"That's..." Sadie said slowly. "Odd"

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"What happened in the winter solstice?" Carter asked. His question however was met with silence from the demigods. Thalia and Nico didn't know the answer while Annabeth and Percy didn't want to spoil the story.

"What _is _the winter, and the summer for that matter, solstice?" asked Sadie.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

Percy made a face. "Those exams were horrible."

"You think all exams are horrible."

"They are."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?" I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"But he could read your emotions," said Nico.

The magicians stared once again, which seemed to happen quite a lot, wondering what there was with Grover.

**and started getting ready for bed. I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"If only," Percy sighed.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best." **

"He shouldn't have said it that way," said Thalia.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Especially since others could hear," narrowing her eyes at Nancy's behavior.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say.**

**"This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." **

"Ouch," Nico whistled as Percy winced.

"He didn't mean it like that you know," said Annabeth.

"Yeah, but still."

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I could see how that could hurt," said Carter.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, **

"Understatement," the demigods snorted. Percy started grumbling saying something about they were the same.

**Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, **

"You're not a nobody," Annabeth said firmly.

Percy smiled at her.

"You're just stupid," she continued, wiping the smile off Percy's face. "But you're not a nobody."

"Gee thanks."

"You're welcome," Annabeth said cheerfully kissing him on the cheek.

**from a family of nobodies. **

"The gods won't like that," said Annabeth, failing to keep the amusement out of their voice.

"Yeah, they aren't nobodies. And we aren't either," said Nico gesturing between him and Thalia.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer **

"That's nice of them."

**and I told them I was going back to the city. What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Well, that's not really nice of them."

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, **

Thalia gave him a small smile. "I'm sure he would be really happy to know that."

**but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Everyone chuckled and shook their heads.

"Way to give him a heart attack Kelp Head."

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?" I confessed about**

**eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

"And he still tries to lie about it,"

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"He really is," Percy nodded his head.

"You do know that you're agreeing with yourself right," said Nico slowly as if talking to a small child.

"Shut it Corpse Breath."

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

The half-bloods grumbled at that. They knew that Mr. D purposely made them fancy script to torture half-bloods.

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800) 009-0009**_

The demigods smiled, thinking about camp.

"Wait," said Carter. "Long Island?"

"Yes," said Annabeth confused. "Why?"

"There are a lot of reports of weird stuff from Long Island," said Sadie.

Annabeth just nodded her head in reply.

**"What's Half—"**

"Seriously Seaweed Brain,"

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address." My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Harsh," everyone said while staring at Percy who was looking down.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"Well at least there's that," sighed Thalia.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

"That's rude," said Sadie.

Carter stared at his sister incredulously. "You're one to talk,"

Before Sadie could even open her mouth Thalia said, "I agree though. You're being rude. Grover's awesome!" as Annabeth smacked Percy.

"I know! I know! I'm sorry alright?" Percy exclaimed.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?" There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. **

Everyone made a face thinking of the smell.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice **_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Annabeth paled as the other demigods except Percy glanced at him with wide eyes.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"That really wasn't the time to joke Perce," said Thalia.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

"It really isn't."

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla. At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"A lot," Percy grumbled.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"No," said Annabeth. "But they're really a whole lot worse."

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

All the demigods nodded. The magicians were at lost but they knew it was a big deal.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"It is."

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"It's not your fault!" said Thalia and Annabeth together even though Grover wasn't there.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

Thalia frowned. She really hated how Grover beat himself over it even though it was her choice.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"That's what we like to know," said Sadie. She was completely at lost about what was happening.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"You broke that promise didn't you," Annabeth shook her head.

Percy shrugged sheepishly. He knew he shouldn't have broken that promise.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

"If only," he sighed. Life would be a lot simpler if it was.

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" **

The demigods shivered. He was right of course. It meant somebody was going to die.

The magicians exchanged glances. It was obvious that Percy's guess in the book was right.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

There was silence for a while before Carter spoke up and said, "I'll ready next."

_There you go. I'm really not pleased with this chapter. Oh well, don't forget to review~_


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